“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, it goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, it goes to his heart” – Nelson Mandela
Noctua Africa is a language learning app that has taken this statement to heart in our effort to advance the world’s knowledge of African languages. We aim to give our users the advantage of good communication in Africa in a short time frame with minimal effort.
To emphasize the importance of learning African languages, it is important to note that 90% of Africans have no knowledge of the colonial language considered to be the “official” language of their country (according to the African Academy of Languages). Learning the native languages will prove to be a great advantage for business, while traveling and during day-to-day life in the country.
With the help of our App you will be able to:
- Speak Zulu/Afrikaans with perfect native accent, in no time!
- Progress through fun and engaging lessons.
- Record your voice and hear what amazing progress you achieve day by day.
- Immensely boost your confidence to go out and talk to people.
To achieve this the app follows a few golden rules for learning a foreign language:
- ALWAYS LEARN PHRASES, NOT INDIVIDUAL WORDS:
- Meaning: Phrases are easier to remember, because they have meaning, they paint a picture, they tell a story.
- Speed: When you learn phrases instead of a word, you’re learning how to use that word correctly, and it’s much faster. When we’re children, we learn with phrases, groups of words, not just one word by one word by one word. Word by word is slow.
- Pronunciation: In reality, some groups of words are said as though it were a single word, in one breath-group, without pausing. If you stop to take a breath in the middle of the phrase, you are not saying it correctly, and you risk being misunderstood.
- LEARN WITH YOUR EARS AND WITH YOUR EYES
- Listen, listen and again listen is the magic key to speaking a language well.
- Listen to how the native speaker speaks some words more strongly with different loudness, speed or pitch. In Africa, these strong words are about new or important information. Without the correct stress on words, listeners may get the wrong meaning.
- All our materials are written and spoken so you can hear, see and learn fast
- USE REAL MATERIALS
- This will help you to be immersed as soon as possible in the foreign language environment.
- All the recordings you will listen to are made by native professionals.
- LISTEN TO YOUR OWN VOICE
- Self-recording is the best approach for reviewing and eliminating diction and pronunciation and grammar errors from your speech. It develops Self-Awareness, which in turn lends itself to Self-Correction.
- Studies have shown that we focus most on voices that are similar to our own, therefore, by listening to your own voice the learning process is greatly accelerated.
- WORK WITH A MODEL
- Pronunciation deteriorates easily, so the longer you go without checking yours against a native, the more likely you are to revert to your mother language speech habits.
- Check your pronunciation often until good speech habits are firmly established in the new language.
Use this application to achieve all these and more while having fun with it!